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Tom C-B's Travels 2006
Hi and welcome back for another exciting installment of my travels. Alot has happened since last time so I'll try to keep it brief!
SATURDAY
We got on the bus at 6:20am and checked in at the Oz Experience office. With all the formalities completed, we set off in the direction of Barrington Tops, a remote town about a 4 hour drive out of Sydney. When we got there we were told to buy all the necessary food as we were staying at a ranch in the 'middle of absolutely bloody nowhere', with no means of communicating with the outside world. We pitched up at the ranch and the option of 'night kayaking' was on offer, yet, seeing as the rain was unrelenting, I declined the offer in favour of sitting around a cosy log burner with Garden Jenga and card games! All you can eat home-made pizza was included in the price of the night's stay, so we filled ourselves till there was no room left to fill, and went en-masse to watch England's first world cup match against Paraguay at the pub back in Barrington Tops, about half an hour's drive away.
Now as you might expect, this was a 'local' pub for 'local' people so we were subject to some taunting, yet, as the English ranch owner (our host) quite accurately summed it up afterwards, there were a few too many thumbs in that place for our liking so, as soon as the final whistle blew, we scarpered for the safety of the bus as fast as our non-local legs could go!! Need I say that we all slept soundly in the tranquil surroundings of 'the middle of absolutely bloody nowhere'!
SUNDAY
An early start and we were back on the bus towards Crescent Head, another tiny town where surfing was to be our distraction. After passing through the town of Crescent Head, we wound our way along bumpy dirt tracks for a further 20 minutes until we finally arrived at our final destination - MojoSurf Camp. We were put into rooms, and then immediately briefed on the theory involved in surfing. After the brief briefing, we got our wetsuits on and headed for the beach, and were told to surf until it got dark! I absolutely loved it and was disappointed when it was time to come out of the water, but the all you can eat BBQ eased the pain a little!! Steak, sausages, burgers, salad, and mashed potato all came together very nicely to make the BBQ the best I have had so far on the trip! Some post dinner sing song sitting round the campfire ensued, and, with everyone tired after the day's surfing exertions, we headed for bed in anticipation of our early morning surfing session the next day.
MONDAY
A good two hours of surfing was the perfect start to the day, and the sun was finally shining which was an added bonus. After showing our gratitude to our fabulous hosts, we were on our way to Byron Bay, the party central of the New South Wales portion of East Coast Oz!! We didn't arrive until early evening so there was only time to quickly beautify ourselves before heading out to the famed 'Cheeky Monkeys' bar across the road from our hostel. Cheap 'backpacker meals' were on offer from just $2 which went down a treat, and then the real party started...
Cheeky Monkeys was famous for one thing - its interesting dance "floor" arrangements. In fact, there is no dance floor as such, as all dancing takes place on the tables, providing some top quality entertainment for all whether that entailed falling off tables or funky dancing on them! The party didn't stop till 3am, after which everyone slept unsurprisingly well, vowing that if the weather was nice the following morning, a surfing session would be on the cards.
TUESDAY
(I'll have to come back to fill in the rest...) So here I am, a whole week later, to fill in the gaps. (It's Tuesday 20th by the way).
Well, the weather was not nice at all this morning so the potential surfing session was replaced with a serious sleepinfg session. When everyone finally crawled out of bed at about midday, a general consensus was taken and it was agreed that today would be a lazy day with no deadlines, apart from the 4pm meet at the 'Beach Hotel' to say goodbye to those who were staying on lopnger in Byron Bay.
Farewells were said but we arranged a mass cinema outing for later that evening, so we dispersed once more for dinner and regrouped for the 7:30 showing of 'The Breakup'. The easy viewing rom-com chic-flick made it a non-controversial choice and everyone seemed to enjoy it.
After the previous night at Cheeky Monkeys, we weren't really up for a night out, so we said goodbye to all those staying behind and headed for slumberland...
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